30 Comments
User's avatar
John Kirsch's avatar

As a political reporter in Iowa, I interviewed a number of caucus contenders who became president.

That allowed me to get a sense of who they were. By the time Obama participated in the caucuses I was in Texas so I never got the chance to size him up in person.

That led me to rely on the national media for a sense of the man. At first I accepted their coverage of Obama as fair and accurate, and I voted both times for Obama.

By the end, though, I had seen that supposedly tough-minded national reporters were fanboys of Obama.

That became obvious when I saw the photo of White House journalists tearfully wishing Michelle good-bye.

In retrospect I think Obama was almost single-handedly responsible for the poisoning of race relations. In the end, he was a sell out. If only the news media had had the guts to do their jobs.

Expand full comment
rick laney's avatar

I remember vividly the Weekly Standard editor - Andrew Ferguson - now a rabid anti-Trumper along with Kristol and so many others from that formerly Great Rag - accurately identifying Obama as a vain and shallow man and in the deepest political sense a fraud. Like I mentioned in an earlier piece Jack posted - that is why Rhoads was such a favorite - the perfect 'pied piper' for the typical unseasoned reporters who basically were spoon fed White House press releases for the entire Obama 2 terms.

This guy who became the Black 'intellectual' senator from Illinois - then the 1st Black Man to be president - just a few short years before his 'emergence' as the 'it' boy at the 2004 Democratic Convention - became a 'community organizer' because no Law Firm in Chicago dared hire him.

Of course, he is a 'sellout' that is all he has ever done - cash in. The Bush/McCain wing of 'global war on Terror' had all but destroyed the Republican party. And Obama single handedly resurrected it. He with Pelosi's help, in remaking the Democrat Party as the most extreme leftist in the history of any Democratic Republic, LOST MORE SEATS AT THE STATE AND LOCAL LEVEL than any regime in American History.

If not for the billionaire 'projects' like Soro's backed DA's - so-called 'independent redistricting commissions' and the ability to change how we vote in Swing States - you would have seen what may yet still happen with Populism and a Trump reformed Republican party.

Congressional & White House dominance at the Federal level - just like FDR from '32 thru Gingrich and the Contract with America - an antidote to the New Deal Coalition.

Expand full comment
Jack Cashill's avatar

I used to write for the Weekly Standard back when it made sense, but they were always afraid of making waves and people who made them.

Expand full comment
Sue Kelley's avatar

Same except I only voted for him once. Having inside knowledge of how healthcare works, I immediately had suspicions of his veracity as he began selling Obamacare. I started reading and digging in about him and many of his partners in crime and the spell was broken. Hillary in the mix sealed the deal.

Expand full comment
Dave Kepus's avatar

How many fanboys were on Epstein’s island, plane or ranch with Barry?

Has any asked Obama why he didn’t release his academic records?

Is it true, as Rush Limbaugh used to say in his own special way, Barry was their Magical Negro since nothing ever stuck to him, the press actively participated in this fraud?

Expand full comment
Jack Cashill's avatar

Agreed

Expand full comment
Henry Pelifian's avatar

Only the ignorant, foolish and brainwashed in the mainstream media and career government would follow and believe Obama’s shallow view of the United States. Elected Democrats do not believe in the Constitution because they want to change it to their socialist hell.

Expand full comment
Jonathan Zartman's avatar

Of all the great works Jack Cashill has written, and there are very many of great research depth and perceptivity, this little nugget really shines! Not just for the perspective on Obama and his management of a facile, shallow journalistic corps, but more importantly his craven approach to negotiating with Iran

Expand full comment
Charles Wemyss, Jr.'s avatar

There was an interesting tidbit in this post, regarding the loss and or lack of local press bureaus in major cities around the world. In the day, “local’ news hounds had the head shed in NY, Boston, Washington, etc barking at them to come up with “news.” The flow, however tilted one way or the other, was a flow of information. As the digital world grew and circulations and ad dollars dried up the major print and by proxy other media outlets, cut budgets. Bureaus closed. A loss of potential to break news or just see the world view from Paris rather than Chicago began its death rattle. Now, if one is adventurous they find podcasts and other ways to gather in essence their own news paper or nightly news for themselves. Scary times for an old system. Scarier that political machines can manipulate the empty headed 27 year olds who have zero intellectual curiosity, but call themselves journalists. Of course many attended St. Alban’s School in DC followed by an ivy education with the sons and daughters of the political elite in Washington. You ain’t gonna rat on your friend’s dad or mom now are you. So when some political hack of either party calls you with a “story’ you run with it. We are a long way from Neil Sheehan and David Halberstam.

Expand full comment
STEVE MADISON's avatar

Per Susan Daniel’s SS: For those who still don't know, Obama has been using a stolen Connecticut social Security number since he was in his mid-20s. It is a felony. He was a felon in the White House and every law he signed and every dollar he spent was done illegally. He needs to be stripped of all his assets.

Expand full comment
Jack Cashill's avatar

Susan is a truth teller and a great patriot.

Expand full comment
Dave Kepus's avatar

I’m sure there is a reasonable explanation

Expand full comment
Art Lover's avatar

No there isn’t. Why are you defending this treasonous felon and his criminal administration?

Expand full comment
Dave Kepus's avatar

Calm Down…Sarcasm is a wonderful tool…watch the Prequel to Silence of The Lamb….Barry deserves such treatment or think Mississippi Burning when the Mob interviews the KKK dude 😉

Expand full comment
ALtab's avatar

A great description of how the government and media are totally in bed with each other to coverup basically everything that happened. The media is deeply complicit in the treason we’ve seen in government for a very long time.

Expand full comment
silverwind9's avatar

What rats and liars these creatures are. Treacherous and treasonous characters. The sad part is the msm bought it hook line and sinker. Those that didn’t or even questioned the upper (lower) elites were axed probably before the print rolled. Thanks for this knowledge and you are right, Obama drank the poison and knew. Why he had no loyalty to a populous who hoped great things in him is tragic. He failed all the way around, even his 1/2 race. Money and power has a way of ruining people, but it’s not worth a person’s character in the end.

Expand full comment
Noah Otte's avatar

Adding race or skin color into discussions on foreign policy is totally inappropriate and toxic to the ability of our leaders to effectively make decisions that are in the best interest of our country.

A white man steeped and rooted in patriarchy, tribe and religion? No. I would say he’s just like any other dictator and/or head of state looking to expand his sphere of influence and build an empire and address his countries’ legitimate national security concerns.

No wonder Barack Obama was such a disaster on foreign policy! He made the misguided Iran Deal, failed to negotiate a peace accords between the Israelis and the Palestinians, failed to intervene in Syria soon enough, withdrew from Iraq too rapidly, and mismanaged the Afghanistan War. I was not aware Vladimir Putin helped get the Iran Deal done, fascinating! But it appears neither Obama or Ben Rhodes gave him any credit for that. They like to think they did it themselves through the mere power of persuasion. That’s nonsense of course. They couldn’t have done it without Putin.

Barack Obama’s rhetoric on race before his presidency was very different from what it would be after he became President. At first he declared he wanted to unite America. That America was ready for a black President and that if he lost it would not be because of his race but rather that his vision for the country had failed to resonate with American voters. After he became the POTUS he declared on a radio program “racism we are not cured of it.”

Then there was the speech where he declared if he had a son he’d “look like Trayvon.” Whatever that means. Or how about when he gave a speech at the UN and mentioned Ferguson, Missouri? Not to mention being chummy with Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson.

Ben Rhodes’ lies about the Iran negotiations being put out to the public and the “know nothing” stenographers in the mainstream media we’re absolutely disgusting! David Samuels was right to have moral qualms about what Rhodes was doing.

Moderates had not taken power in Iran rather they were handpicked puppets of the Ayatollahs. The Supreme Leader Khamenei was still very much in charge of the Islamic Republic. Nor did the deal accomplish its goal. Iran kept doing nuclear research long after Obama and Secretary of State John Kerry had completed it. Do you really believe Iran of all countries would keep their “word of honor?”

The Obama White House was definitely involved in the collusion frame-up from the very beginning. Never forget it was the Obama administration who abused the FISA court to spy on Donald Trump’s campaign. Barack Obama and his administration saw Mr. Trump as a threat to the country and sought to undermine him and get him toppled from power if possible, thus Russiagate was born.

Expand full comment
Jack Cashill's avatar

It seems that if you are born in Russia to a Russian family there is a good chance you are going to be white. Yes, skin color was totally irrelevant.

Expand full comment
Susan Daniels's avatar

Does Jack Cashll ever sleep?

Expand full comment
Jack Cashill's avatar

Is that an observation or an invitation?

Expand full comment
Susan Daniels's avatar

Uh, an observation ;-)

Expand full comment
Art Lover's avatar

Obama is a criminal and a traitor and should be put in front of a firing squad for the coup he and Hillary ran during 2016 where his administration spied on first private citizens then candidates as they were elected for the primaries and then the transitional president and then the sitting president. Totally illegal he needs to be held accountable.

Expand full comment
David Merrifield's avatar

Fuck that stupid oreo!!!

Expand full comment
Stephen Guy Hardin's avatar

Excellent piece! Very insightful and informative.

Expand full comment
Stephen Paul Foster's avatar

"For all of Putin’s nationalist posturing, to cast the drama as racial is as perverse as it is predictable."

Obama was always a man of racial grievances, which he barely dissimulated in his first term, then went full Al Sharpton in the second, with "racism in our DNA ... We're not cured..."

Expand full comment
Elsie E Connelly's avatar

I would much rather deal with Vladimir than Axehat

Expand full comment
Julie's avatar

Obama is evil squared

Expand full comment
Just Some Guy's avatar

Putin is a garden variety kleptocrat, more like Mobutu than Hitler, who loves the power and prestige he gets from American domestic politics like the Russia collusion hoax.

Expand full comment